Derby Girls

 The Pinewood Derby is a longstanding tradition in the Boy Scouts and it was also a fun part of my childhood as I have brothers that were both Scouts.  I remember my Dad and them designing and building their cars and then watching them race against their friends from all of the troops in the area.  It was a lot of fun and it taught them about design, drag, velocity, and sportsmanship among other things.  When I signed my girls up as Brownies a few years ago, I never imagined that they too would have the chance to race their own cars in the Pinewood Derby as it is not traditionally a Girl Scout event.  But we have some great leaders here on the Munich Council and they decided it was high time the Girls got involved.  They purchased some extra car kits, secured a location and an official track and started the First (hopefully annual) Girl Scouts Pinewood Derby.  We jumped at the chance to participate.

Our official car kits and the rules.

Now, my girls are still a little young to be using power tools and handsaws.  And even if they were old enough, we just don't have access to the same tools we would if we were at home (tools don't run on the same voltage here so we left all of ours in storage back in the States).  All I had to work with was a Dremel and a small saw which I couldn't let the girls use because there were no clamps to hold the block, just hands and we didn't want them to lose any fingers.  So, the cutting and power sanding was up to me.  But the design - that was all the girls.  They both picked what they wanted the car to look like and I got to work.  Slowly but surely, I whittled the blocks into something that resembled their requests.  And then they got to work...They painted...

let them dry...

then painted again and added the details and then Modge Podged them.

At the end of it all, we had a sparkly orange crayon and a pink sparkle bunny.  Pretty cute if I do say so myself.

But we had one more dilemma, the cars didn't weigh enough.  See, like any race it is all about speed and the heavier your car is, the faster it will go.  You do have a weight limit - 142 g (5 oz) - so you need to weight your car carefully.  In our case, we attached magnets to the front and back of their cars so that we could add coins for weight and not ruin the looks of our cars.  Looks are important too as there are trophies for best design, most flair, and racers choice to consider.

Race time came and we were officially weighed (came in right at 141, just one gram under the legal limit).  After the weigh-in, we were not allowed to touch our cars again until the final trophies were handed out.

The trophies we were vying for.

It was a pretty good turnout for being the First.

And then the racing began.  The girls were split by troops - first the Daisies, then the Brownies and then the Junior/Cadettes.  Each car would race on each lane at least once and all of their times would be added together to achieve their final ranking.  It was all very official and a lot of fun!

Then the voting came.  The adults picked the ones for Most Flair and Best design while the Scouts chose their favorite car overall.  I was not able to vote for my girl's cars but am happy to report that their hard work paid off...

Stinkerbell won 1st place in her division and was awarded the Most Flair trophy.

MadHatter won 3rd Place in her division and was awarded the Best Design trophy.

So proud of them and their hard work.  I can only hope we get a chance to do it again next year.